Oxidative decomposition of methanol in a vibroacoustic fluidized bed of Ag-coated cenosphere core-shell catalyst

The paper presents results of a study of oxidative decomposition of methanol in a fluidized bed of silver catalyst. The process of methanol oxidation was carried out on Ag-coated cenospheres core-shell catalyst. The catalyst was obtained by precipitation of silver from methanolic solution of silver nitrate on cenospheres. Cenospheres are lightweight, inert, hollow spheres, which can be easily introduced into a fluidized bed. Application of the catalyst in a form of fluidized bed should ensure good temperature equalization which is very important at low temperatures due to the possibility of generation of formaldehyde. It turned out that local hot points occur in that kind of a catalyst (in the form of a fluidized bed but with very low density), thus use of additional acoustic wave is necessary to ensure good control over the temperature of the process. The products of the process of methanol oxidation were monitored on-line by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The catalyst has proven to be highly active in the oxidative decomposition of methanol. Full of methanol conversion in reaction of complete oxidation was achieved at 350°C.